Case Study - Thalena Maria Sanchez

Case Study - Thalena Maria Sanchez

TESL 221 – Fall 2014

Kristin Emrich

Thalena Marie Sanchez was born on July 7th, 1999 in Cauca Colombia. She was born into poverty and over the years her family has struggled to keep her in school. Although primary school in Colombia is free, Thalena’s parents have needed her to work at times so Thalena has missed about 2 years of school. She is driven and bright but the language barrier makes it hard for Thalena to succeed in class.

Why did I choose this case study? This past year I worked as a tutor at William Fleming High School. The majority of the classes that I tutor are Algebra but there are a few geometry and algebra II classes as well. Most of the students are African American. A very large majority of the students are Hispanic and there are almost as many Asian students. All of my classes have ELL students who have struggled with the material and have struggled fitting in to the class. At the beginning of the year I noticed that there was a mature young women who was very quiet and didn’t participate at all in class discussions. At first when I asked if she needed help she would shake her head but not say anything. After several days of watching her, I began to see body language that suggested confusion. Instead of asking if she was okay, I sat down beside her and watched as she struggled to take notes. When she stopped and looked up, her face seemed to be begging for help. In broken Spanish I asked if this was a new topic for her and she said yes. I found out that she spoke very little conversational English. I spoke very little conversational Spanish. Yet, between the two of us and the wonderful use of technology we developed a system. I would translate the instructions into Spanish and she would write it and say it in English. Working with her and seeing her come out of her shell even a little was one of the most rewarding things I have experienced. I chose this specific case study because of my experience at William Fleming High School. So many of the kids didn’t speak English and not enough teachers paid attention to the body language. This case study will help me dive a little more into some of the challenges that young men and women, just like my student, face every day. If I can learn how to better help while writing this case study then I will have improved the quality of teaching that I can provide to future students.

As mentioned before Thalena is a 16 year old female Colombian. She was born in rural Colombia and speaks Spanish. She began attending primary school when she was six years old. Her mother and father struggled to be able to afford the costs of her “free” education. They had to buy the school uniform and pay for meals. Since they lived in a rural area, there were also travel expenses that had to be covered as well as any writing materials and school textbooks. Although her education was a financial burden on her family, Thalena excelled. During primary school she caught on very quickly in mathematics and enjoyed history. Reading and writing levels were slightly below average because of the challenges that she faces with a lack of resources. When she was 12, Thalena’s father abandoned her and her mother. Thalena had to drop out of school to help her mother work. In rural Colombia, cartel and guerrilla violence is prominent and it eventually became so dangerous that Thalena and her mother moved to the city to live with Thalena’s Aunt and Uncle in Cali Colombia. Thalena’s mother was able to get a job that paid enough for Thalena to go back to school. Although she tried to catch up, Thalena struggled to meet the requirements. The school was underfunded and teachers were unhappy and disgruntled. After three years of little improvement, Thalena’s mother decided to move to the United States in order to give Thalena a better education and a better chance of succeeding in life.

Here in the United States, Thalena’s family consists of her mother. She has no additional family or friends. Thalena and her mother live in a 2 bedroom apartment with another family in order to make rent more affordable. Thalena’s mother works afternoons and evenings because they are higher paid positions. Because they spent three years in Cali, Colombia, Thalena has picked up some conversational English but is very limited in her ability to use it. She has no academic English language acquisition but strives to be deserving of the sacrifices her mother makes. Thalena is a healthy young women who demonstrates no malnutrition, physical or emotional deficit. She is physically average for her age group and developmentally on track.

Thalena’s mother views education as critical and encourages Thalena to continue striving towards her goals of going to college. Although she doesn’t read, Thalena’s mother does speak some English. Usually in the evenings, Thalena visits with her motherand teachers her what she learned at school in history, math, and science as well as helping her mother with English as best she can.

Colombia is a country that has a huge disparity between the poverty levels in rural areas compared to those in urban areas. Because of the instability, rural areas have poverty levels of 64 per cent while urban city have only 46 percent. Rural areas also suffer with around 40 percent of the population in extreme poverty. Urban areas still have a high rate of extreme poverty but compared to rural areas is it far less at 29 percent. [1] Rural areas have a high level of instability because of the violence and unrest inflicted by guerilla’s and drug cartels. Life in rural Columbia consists of trying to make ends meet with little to no job opportunities and no feeling of safety. The violence runs through the country side chasing people away. Family flee their land in fear of what might happen if they stay. With no security in land ownership, the ability to make a living off the land is severely limited. Most of the rural people try to build microenterprises in order to survive. Microenterprises are self-built companies with less than ten workers. Although we have a romantic view of being an entrepreneur in America, the life of a self-employed business man is far from wonderful in rural Colombia. The education system in rural Colombia is also less than desirable. Although there are schools and attendance is mandatory for primary school, they are few and far between. The trip children face when heading to school is long and often unsafe. It is expensive for parents or adults to accompany children because they are missing critical opportunities to make money. In addition, although public education is free, there are other costs that parents often can’t afford. School uniforms are mandatory but not provided. Textbooks are also not provided for students. Writing utensils and notebooks are all tools that cost the parents. Because education is difficult, illiteracy rates in rural areas are high which in turn promotes the low level of income and perpetuates the negative economic spiral.

During her time in the department of Cali, Thalena picked up drawing and ended up befriended a young American girl who shared in the love of art. Miriam spoke fluent Spanish so communication wasn’t a problem and after a while Miriam began teaching Thalena the English language. After school, Thalena would go over to her friends’ house where English was the primary language. Thalena learned how to understand verbal English well enough that she and the rest of the family could communicate using broken mixed Spanish and English. Thalena became adept at understanding spoken English and was able to use that skill to help her learn how to speak. Over the course of three years, Thalena’s ability to speak English rose from no ability to being able to speak sentences with a few grammatical errors.

However, due to her informal English lessons, Thalena has very limited ability to read English because she has had limited access to books written in English. She has picked up how to read simple sentences and can write anything because of her love of drawing and art. The following chart gives a little bit of Thalena’s linguistic development history and is based on her arrival to the United States. Her level of linguistic development at this point could best be described as BICS.

6 years / 12 years / 13 years / 14 years / 15 years
Vocabulary expansion / None / Very few receptive words / 1000
receptive words / 1500 receptive words / 2000 receptive words
Morphemes / None / none / Extremely limited use of past tense / Limited use of past/future tenses / Some use of past/future tenses
Syntax / None / None / Reverse use of verbs / Reverse use of verbs / Some correct sentence structure and verb use
Phonology / None / Basic sounds / Minimal proficiency of blends and consonants / Adequate pronunciation of blends and consonants / Better use of consonants, blends and diphthongs
Cultural pragmatic appropriateness / None / None / None / Social setting provides feedback for better language awareness / Social setting provides feedback for better language awareness
BICS & CALP / None / None / Greetings & basic phrases, none / Greetings and simple relevant cultural conversation, none / Basic conversation, basic instructions
Prescriptive aspect of English; grammar, punctuation / None / None / Limited knowledge / Interacts with positive and negative responses / Interacts with positive and negative responses
Writing ability in class / None / Writes simple sentences / Writes complex sentences / Writes complex sentences / Writes complex sentences
Reading ability in class / None / None / Reads simple words / Reads simple sentences / Reads simple sentences

In the first two weeks of math class, she never spoke. She was responsive but all communication was non-verbal. She would nod, shake her head or shrug her shoulders but she participated and was attentive as much as possible. She was quiet and kept to herself but appeared to be taking notes and copying down any instructions that were written. Below is a sample of some of the notes that she took. It wasn’t until the first collected homework that the teacher noticed that Thalena was struggling.

She exceled in problems that had very little instruction. Specifically solving equations. Her teacher began to notice that Thalena struggled when the problems were asked in various ways. For example the following question was left unanswered.

Each day in her math class, Thalena had an oral review of vocabulary. She had picked up how to recognize specific common math words. Her teacher would put words on the board and people discuss the meaning in groups and then present the agreed upon definition to the class when called on. Thalena picked up key words like the following:

Thalena had demonstrated a basic understanding of operation words and some mathematical properties. The teacher approached Thalena to see if she was stuck on a problem during a quiz and she noticed that Thalena was just staring at the page. When asked if she understood the problem, Thalena made no answer and moved uncomfortable in her chair. The teacher asked which operation was being used in a specific part and Thalena was able to answer. Through different interactions similar to this one, the teacher was able to determine that Thalena had a very good grasp of previous concepts. She struggled to catch on to the new material. Specifically the words that had a much more vague meaning like function and inequality.

Her teacher developed a chart over the course of several homework assignments, quizzes, and tests of the percentage of questions out of 100 that Thalena was able to answer.

Because of the discrepancy between the different types of problems that were attempted and not attempted, Thalena’s teacher asked to talk to her one day. Although she had received a relatively thin academic record, there was not enough information to give a clear picture of exactly what might be going on.

Interview with Thalena:

Teacher: “Thank you for meeting with me today! How are you and your mother settling in?”

Thalena: (Shrugs and shyly smiles)

Teacher: “What is your favorite class at this school?”

Thalena: “Definitely art!”

Teacher: “What is your favorite part?”

Thalena: “Drawing! I love to draw. I have many sketches at home.”

Teacher: “How are you liking this math class?”

Thalena: “I like math. The numbers I understand and it is easy for me but sometimes it is a challange.”

Teacher: “I’ve noticed that you struggle a little bit with problems that have a lot of words. Do you like to read?”

Thalena: (hangs head a little bit) “yes, but I am not very good.”

Teacher: “Do you think it’s important to be able to read?”

Thalena: “I want to read but when I was little there were not many books. In school, we read in Spanish so I was not able to practice in English. My friend in Colombia taught me a little but I do not know enough.”

Teacher: “You take very good notes though. I’ve noticed how hard you work.”

Thalena: “gracias! I want to be good.”

The problem:

Thalena is struggling to read English. She can communicate verbally at a low CALP level but her reading skills are at the 5th grade level. She has been able to understand entrance tests because she was taught the concepts in Spanish and can recognize the scenario when looking at answer choices and the format of the problem. This is a reflection of the education in rural Colombia being conducted in Spanish. However, she is falling behind rapidly and desperately needs help learning how to read English. She also needs specialized help in math if she is to remain in algebra 1 where so many of the instructions are written and some of the concepts are beginning to be abstract.

The reading deficit that Thalena is struggling with is very serious in the teacher’s mind and although she is planning to modify instruction to incorporate more written and verbal connections, Thalena needs additional help. In order to help, the teacher has set up a meeting with all crucial parties to discuss Thalena’s options. She wants to remain in Algebra 1 but there has been some discussion of having her repeat Math 8 so that she can have an opportunity to learn the written language without having the added strain of new mathematical concepts. This meeting is extremely important in determining the future of Thalena’s ascent in academics.

The meeting:

Guidance Counselor: I have reviewed Thalena’s academic record and have found that she has always exceeded expectations. We have worked together prior to this and I have found her motivated to learn and showing progress. We have discussed the uphill battle that she will have if she is allowed to stay in Algebra 1 and she is ready to meet that battle. I am recommending that she be allowed to remain in Algebra 1 with remediation for reading.

Principal: After evaluating Thalena’s records and speaking to all persons involved in her education, I have decided to allow Thalena to remain in Algebra 1. I will review this decision at the end of this half of the year and as long as she is continuing to demonstrate that she is able to meet the requirements of her remediation, she will remain in Algebra 1. The following outline is a plan for Thalena’s remediation.

• After school reading program
• ESOL class is highly recommended for the upcoming year
• Peer tutoring in class environments that promotes reading ability

Parent: I will do whatever it takes for Thalena to graduate. She loves to learn and enjoys this school but I am focused on helping her in the long run. Whatever you recommend is what we will do.

ESOL teacher: I have met with Thalena and had an opportunity to assess her level of reading. She is very driven, motivated to succeed and I understand her desire to stay in Algebra 1. However, I believe that the large deficit in her reading will gradually overwhelm her and she will be unable to withstand the academic pressure in combination with the emotional pressure of having just moved to the United States. I am recommending that she be placed back in math 8.